More than 20 years have passed since the laying of the foundation stone in Contrada San Nicola, Mazara del Vallo, when Michele Sala decided with his wife Doretta and daughters to start bottling the surrounding goodness and beauty. Today, that milestone in the history of Gorghi Tondi is a source of great pride, and a fixed point in the future plans of the Sala sisters.
This 2023 will be a year full of novelties for Tenuta Gorghi Tondi, which has come of age from a production point of view and is aware of a legacy that counts four generations of women and over a century of history.
Evolution and renewal will be the keywords of this new course, which began in recent years with the restyling of some product lines and which saw in the Kheirèyear 2021, its final realisation.
The company's flagship white wine, previewed at the Gambero Rosso selections in 2022, is the emblem of an awareness of doing that has led to a new look, but above all to a change in production that enriches the company's reserve from Grillo grapes with a partial passage in cask new French oak to give it further complexity. A choice that proved to be a winner and that earned the company the coveted Tre Bicchieri award from the Vini d'Italia guide.
Kheirè, a welcome expression in ancient Greek, is Gorghi Tondi's first homage to the thousand-year history of Sicily and the time when the island was an integral part of the glorious Magna Graecia. A name that since the first harvest in 2006 tells the the family's most important white wine, produced from the best selection of Grillo grapes cultivated overlooking the Mediterranean. A wine that remains firmly tied to its origins and the places where it is produced, represented on the label by the four concentric rings that, ideally, represent the lakes of the Preola Lake and Gorghi Tondi nature reserve and, by extension, water, symbol of life and rebirth.
The estate's longest-lived and most structured white is not the only one to have embarked on this journey towards self-awareness. The Rajah, a selection from the best Zibibbo vineyards, changes its appearance and marries even more the terroir that surrounds it. The new 2022 vintage will feature on the label the nautilus, one of the fossils that is an integral part of the estate's sandy limestone soils, which give the wines their characteristic finesse and minerality.
Like the nautilus shell, the Zibibibbo variety arrives from the sea and spreads in the Mediterranean basin with the Arab domination; a clear reference to the different stratifications of Sicilian culture and to a Sicilian-Tunisian duality that is at home in Mazara del Vallo, the area where the winery is located. The peculiar spiral shape of the nautilus is widespread in the natural world and is known as the 'golden section', a numerical proportion of harmony and beauty that for centuries has embodied perfection, especially in art, and is a symbol of renewal. A renewal that also embraces the container of Gorghi Tondi's aromatic white wine par excellence, with a silhouette inspired by the Rhine bottle, ideal for aromatic wines and to further emphasise the organoleptic characteristics of this evergreen that smells of citrus, orange blossom and jasmine.
Closing this roundup of novelties concerning the company's premium labels is the newest red from the Sala family, or rather from the "SorelleSala". This is in fact the name chosen for the most important red wine, which tells of the symbolic union of two sisters, two personalities, a common heritage, but also two vineyards, and which will replace the current red cru, Sorante and Segreante.
SorelleSala is emblematic of a new approach to the company's philosophy, with vineyards that are now over thirty and forty years old. A persuasive and structured red Riserva, obtained from the best selection of Nero d'Avola grapes blended with other varieties, which matures for a long time in cask of French oak to express its natural elegance.
It is a wine that represents the maturity in the path undertaken in the early 2000s by Annamaria and Clara, at the helm of the family business with the aim of realising Michele and Doretta's dream, and demonstrating the extraordinary plurality of winemaking in south-western Sicily. A double 'S' is represented in the centre of the new label that unites the stylised faces of the two sisters, echoing the initials of the two aforementioned reds, of which this wine is the evolution and sum, as well as the initials of the name Sala. A label that speaks of change and affirms the great determination of two women, strong in their experience, who decide to put their face and also their signature on it.
And it is precisely the signature that trait d'union between these three wines. Annamaria and Clara Sala is the 'subtitle' that distinguishes these three new labels, renamed for the occasion winesborrowing a term from Shakespeare's language that encapsulates the idea of a distinctive sign and the word 'nature', a concept inextricably linked with the very essence of Gorghi Tondi.
SIG winesnes will be officially presented to the public in Verona, during the upcoming 55a edition of Vinitaly. In addition, it will be possible to taste the new Kheirè Grillo Riserva 2021 at the special 'Tre Bicchieri al Vinitaly' event scheduled for Sunday, 2 April, at PalaExpo, from 11:00 to 16:30 in the Sala Argento.
Tenuta Gorghi Tondi will be present at Vinitaly, from 2 to 5 April 2023, in Hall 2 Sicily, at stand 35 D.
